What car shoppers want now that gas is cheaper – San Francisco Chronicle (1/27/09):

As Woody Allen once said, “the heart wants what the heart wants.” And in the case of Bay Area car buyers, it’s pickups and SUVs. Not Priuses. It seems now that gas prices have fallen back to earth, saving the earth is not necessarily topmost of everybody’s mind. Denny Fitzpatrick, owner of Fitzpatrick Chevrolet Hummer in Concord, says his customers are shopping for Silverados, Tahoes and Suburbans. “Meanwhile, we have a bunch of smaller passenger cars we can’t sell.”

Short memories. Nine months ago, a gallon of regular gas here in the Bay was going for $4.61. Before any of these “Silverados, Tahoes and Suburbans” come back for a trade-in, gas will have seen last summer’s prices again. And we’ll be in for a whole new round of whining.